Unclear who is behind the attack on base located in stronghold of Assad's Alawites, but Syrian, Lebanese media accuse Israel; Channel 2 reports attack's target were S-125 surface-to-air missiles.

A Syrian air defense base near the port city of Latakia was completely destroyed on Thursday morning in a missile attack from the sea, Arab media reported.

According to reports emanating from the rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, a large explosion occurred near the army base in Latakia on Wednesday night. Witness posted on Twitter that the explosion happened near coastal city Jableh, 30 kilometers south of Latakia, a stronghold of Assad's Alawites.

It is unclear who is behind the explosion or its purpose. There were no reports of casualties.

Members of the Syrian and Lebanese media have charged that Israel is behind the attack. Israel's defense establishment has not responded to the report.

This is my take as well, and I suspected at the time that this was the real reason why the Obama administration was so eager to commit to air strikes as well -- they may have been intending to clear a path for an Israeli strike.

I’d expect the Israelis are behind this and it is the opening phase of their soon to be, attack on Iranian nuclear sites. Obama has zero ability, now, to reign in the Israelis as they are convinced he is an enemy. Israel would do well to destroy all the possible places that could be used for retaliatory strikes from Iran and Syria, prior to things going hot. It would make sense to take out as much as they can, slowly, so it doesn’t trigger an all out retaliatory strike.

The ONLY victors to arise from the ashes of an Assad regime will be Syrian-Sunni, Muslim Brotherhood, Wahabi-cleric affiliated Islamists and they, more extremely than Assad, will see Arab and Muslim dominion over all “Palestine” as necessary.

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